Brazilian native Paulo Coelho has joined San Francisco-based Pereira & O'Dell as associate creative director, working across the agency's client roster as well as brands interested in the emerging Brazilian market. He comes to the S.F. shop from Agência Africa in Sao Paulo. Coelho worked his way up from art director to creative director at Africa, overseeing Itaú Bank (10th largest bank in the world), Vivo Mobile (Movistar), Brahma Beer (Anheuser-Busch InBev), Vale (largest mining company in the Americas), Nivea and Mitsubishi cars, among other accounts….Jonathan Gribetz has joined Chelsea in Los Angeles as an executive producer, serving as the West Coast counterpart to Pat McGoldrick, EP in the NY office. Over the years, industry rep Gribetz has worked in such capacities as sales rep, bidder, head of production, first assistant director, line producer and exec producer. He recently was line producer for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 spot, “The Vet and the n00b,” starring Sam Worthington and Jonah Hill, from agency 72andSunny. Gribetz's career has taken him around the world, and he has line produced for many of Chelsea's directors in the past….
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More